Characteristics of the Sample
| HA at 5 ya: Screened N = 174 | HA at 5 y: Non-screened N = 47 | Difference Pb | CI at 5 y: aScreened N = 84 | CI at 5 y: Nonscreened N = 20 | Difference P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child | Age at HA fitting in months, mean (SD) | 9.1 (8.9) | 19.1 (10.7) | <.001 | 4.0 (4.2) | 12.9 (6.3) | <.001 |
| Age at HA fitting in months, median (IQR)c | 5.1 (2.6–12.2) | 21.3 (9.2–28.6) | — | 2.5 (1.8 – 4.1) | 12.8 (7.4 –18.2) | — | |
| Fitted with HAs before 6 mo of age, n (%)d | 97 (55.7%) | 9 (19.1%) | <.001 | 70 (83.3%) | 3 (15.0%) | <.001 | |
| Age at activation of first CI in months, median (IQR) | — | — | — | 13.04 (9.7 –19.2) | 20.9 (16.3 –26.1) | — | |
| Fitted with CI before 12 mo of age, n (%) | — | — | — | 37 (44.0%) | 2 (10.0%) | .01 | |
| Male sex, n (%) | 97 (55.7%) | 30 (63.8%) | .41 | 41 (46.5%) | 5 (25.0%) | .09 | |
| Birth weight (g), mean (SD) | 2967.7 (1022.2) | 3144.2 (843.4) | .67 | 3184.8 (883.5) | 2923.4 (941.1) | .18 | |
| Degree of hearing loss depicted by BE4FA hearing thresholds in dB HL, mean (SD) | 49.1 (14.8) | 47.0 (15.9) | .42 | 101.9 (14.5) | 97.0 (16.9) | .29 | |
| Mild (BE4FA ≤ 40 dB HL), n (%) | 47 (27.0%) | 13 (27.7%) | — | — | — | — | |
| Moderate (BE4FA: 41–60 dBHL), n (%) | 88 (50.6%) | 26 (55.3%) | — | — | — | — | |
| Severe (BE4FA: 61–80 dB HL), n (%) | 36 (20.7%) | 7 (14.9%) | — | 7 (8.6%) | 3 (20%) | — | |
| Profound (BE4FA: >80 dB HL), n (%) | 3 (1.7%) | 1 (2.1%) | — | 74 (91.4%) | 12 (80%) | — | |
| Presence of any additional disabilities, n (%) | 49 (31.3%) | 21 (47.7%) | .06 | 23 (31.9%) | 2 (11.1%) | .14 | |
| Cerebral palsy | 10 (6.3%) | 3 (6.7%) | — | 5 (6.7%) | 2 (11.1%) | — | |
| Autism spectrum disorder | 6 (2.8%) | 1 (2.3%) | — | 4 (5.4%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Vision impairment | 30 (13.9%) | 8 (17.8%) | — | 4 (5.4%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Cranio-facial abnormalities | 9 (5.7%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | 1 (1.3%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Genetic | 17 (10.6%) | 4 (8.9%) | — | 5 (6.8%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Other | 20 (12.6%) | 12 (26.7%) | — | 10 (13.5%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Nonverbal cognitive ability, mean (SD) | 95.7 (25.4) | 96.3 (24.5) | .81 | 92.5 (26.4) | 92.1 (24.0) | .74 | |
| Oral communication during educational intervention, n (%) | 79 (83.2%) | 19 (76.0%) | .59 | 44 (83.0%) | 5 (62.5%) | .38 | |
| Family | Language other than English household, n (%) | 33 (21.4%) | 6 (14.6%) | .46 | 14 (20.6%) | 3 (20.0%) | .99 |
| SESe, mean (SD) | 1018.8 (74.5) | 1023.9 (74.8) | .68 | 1015.6 (73.5) | 1010.5 (78.0) | .83 | |
| Maternal education: ≤12 y schooling, n (%) | 59 (34.7%) | 19 (43.2%) | .39 | 24 (29.6%) | 8 (42.1%) | .44 | |
| Maternal education: vocational training certificate, n (%) | 43 (25.3%) | 10 (22.7%) | .88 | 18 (22.2%) | 5 (26.3%) | .94 | |
| Maternal education: university degree, n (%) | 68 (40.0%) | 15 (34.1%) | .59 | 39 (48.1%) | 6 (31.6%) | .29 | |
IQR, interquartile range; —, not applicable.
↵a Accessed UNHS. Information about screening status was missing for 25 of the 350 children.
↵b P value for the test of whether the distributions in the screened and nonscreened groups are the same using Mann–Whitney U tests for the continuous variables and tests of proportions for the discrete variables.
↵c Median age at HA fitting of the entire screened group comprising users of HA and CI was 3.9 mo (IQR: 2.3–10.1), and the median age at fitting of the entire nonscreened group was 17.3 mo (IQR: 7.5–25.9).
↵d All percentages are relative to the number of nonmissing values.
↵e SES represented by the Index of Relative Social Advantage and Disadvantage, which has a mean of 1000 and an SD of 100. The study cohort has a range of 300–1250.